pipe, noun

Origin:
EnglishShow more Special senses of general English.
1. Mining and Geology. [Special sense of English pipe ‘a vein of ore of a more or less cylindrical form’ (OED); see quotation 1985.] A vertical, cylindrical mass of volcanic agglomerate in which diamonds occur. See also blue ground.
1873 E.J. Dunn in Quarterly Jrnl of Geol. Soc. (1874) XXX. 54The contents of these ‘pipes’ in the shale are the same in all cases, and show distinctly that they are of igneous origin.
1886 J. Noble Cape of G.H.: Off. Handbk 194The strata..where cut through by the vertical ‘pipe,’ have their edges turned sharply upwards, as by a pressure from below.
1889 H.A. Bryden Kloof & Karroo 201[I] believe that like the Kimberley ‘pipe,’ — as diggers call it — the diamondiferous earth had been shot upwards funnel-wise from below.
1903 Daily Chron. (U.K.) 2 June 2Diamonds..only appear at the surface in places where they have shared in a volcanic upheaval. Hence they are found in what are technically known as pipes.
1920 F.C. Cornell Glamour of Prospecting 89In many places along our..route..we came across..well-defined ‘pipes’..in which ‘yellow’ and ‘blue’ ground..was disclosed in dry watercourses.
1920 R.H. Lindsey-Renton Diary (1979) 36The diamonds are found in what is known as ‘blue ground’, the soil being of a colour which might by a stretch of imagination be called pale blue. This soil is found in ‘pipes’, that is a more or less circular area of ground stretching down, practically perpendicular, I believe, towards the centre of the earth.
a1930 G. Baumann in Baumann & Bright Lost Republic (1940) 141Two prospectors..came and asked me to do a survey of the farm on which the vlei stood, as they had discovered a diamond pipe.
1941 C.W. De Kiewiet Hist. of S. Afr. 92Here on the veld were alluvial deposits too, but the greatest proportion of diamonds was found in the unique geological formation of pipes of blue ground running deep into the earth.
1968 S. Tolansky Strategic Diamond 26Broadly speaking, diamonds occur in two kinds of deposits, namely in deep mines, in what are called ‘pipes’, and in alluvial deposits, once perhaps riverbeds, or even marine beds.
1971 The 1820 Vol.43 No.11, 26The alluvial diggings were soon overshadowed..in 1870 and 1871 when the sites of five diamond-bearing volcanic pipes were disclosed — four of them in an area of less than five square miles that was to be Kimberley...Diamonds to great depths were found in the pipes.
1985 A.J.A. Janse in Glover & Harris Kimberlite Occurrence & Origin 24The person who first introduced the term ‘pipes’ in print and who usually gets the credit for being the first to recognise the igneous origin of this peculiar kind of breccia in a matrix of gabbro, was the Australian geologist E.J. Dunn, who was at the time the Geological Survey geologist for the Cape Province.
2. slang. [Transferred use of general (originally U.S.) English slang pipe opium-pipe.]
a. A quantity of marijuana sufficient for smoking in a pipe; dagga pipe sense (b), see dagga noun2 sense 3 b. Cf. bottleneck sense a, stop sense 1 a.
[1967 Drum 27 Aug. 7Pyp or bottelkop: Drinking-end of broken bottle with silver paper filter (healthier than chilam-pipe because it can be changed often).]
1970 Forum Vol.6 No.2, 20How’s the pipe? I tend to miss every joint, pipe, roach, cookie, roller, twist, cob, stick, grass-thing that’s around.
1972 Rhodeo (Rhodes Univ.) 23 Mar. 4Like Friday night starts with cracking a coupla’ pipes, sinking a jack of Martell and splitting for the fuzz shop.
1972 Argus 1 Apr. 7A young boy asked my daughter at Clifton the other day whether she liked ‘the pipes’. She at first thought he meant bagpipes. Then she discovered he was inviting her to smoke dagga.
1987 S.A. Botha in Frontline Oct.–Nov. 11You wanna zol, my bra? Here’s a fat blade. Easy make two, three pipes out of this, my bra.
1991 A. Barker in Daily Dispatch 8 Jan. 8Unscrupulous dealers are supplying deadly fakes, disguised as the crude pills. ‘Guys just keel over after a pipe. You say wow, what a rush, Then you see the guy is dead.’
b. With qualifying word:
white pipe, also wit pipe /vət -/ [Afrikaans wit white], a quantity of marijuana and tobacco mixed with powdered methaqualone tablets; see also button sense a.
1981 Rand Daily Mail 21 May 1Five men..were making a ‘white pipe’ out of Mandrax and dagga.
1984 D. Pinnock Brotherhoods 8Here, undisturbed, the brothers can smoke ‘white pipe’ (a mixture of dagga, tobacco and mandrax) and ‘rap’.
1985 Drum Dec. 26He..received money from time to time and was able to smoke 30 to 40 ‘white pipes’ a day containing two ‘buttons’ (mandrax tablets).
1993 J. Wilhelm in Sunday Times 17 Oct. 15Combined..with Mandrax and smoked as a ‘white pipe’, it’s (sc. marijuana is) positively destructive.
1994 A. Donaldson in Style Oct. 43I was 17 when I was first offered a white pipe (a Mandrax and dagga mixture).
A vertical, cylindrical mass of volcanic agglomerate in which diamonds occur.
A quantity of marijuana sufficient for smoking in a pipe; dagga pipe sense (b), see dagga noun2 sense 3 b.
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pip, nounn.pisang, nounn.
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